Exit Speed

The biker gang were about as scary as a bunch of moped kids on a council estate. Not the worst but by no means suitable for a Sunday afternoon watch. Maybe a drunken Friday B movie when waiting for the main event.

I would not have expected much from a film titled 'Exit Speed'. However, my brother recommended it and I decided to give it a shot. In a nutshell, 'Exit Speed' is a thriller about a group of passengers travelling to Texas when, on the way, they are attacked by a murderous biker gang. It is pretty much what one would call a popcorn thriller. The film would have been more fun to watch had the execution been up for the marks. It looks like a past midnight TV movie or a straight-to-video flick. It certainly would have benefited with a bigger budget and more style. The cinematography is dull. The background score is awful. Most of the cast, with the exception of Lea Thompson act from mediocre to bad. Thompson is the only one who's up for the mark. But perhaps a bright side is that the worst actors are killed off. The suspense is maintained well enough. Surely it is easy to predict who will die and what will happen next and so on but the tension between the gang and the passengers and within the passengers is well conveyed. 'Exit Speed' will perhaps be best enjoyed if the viewer took it for what it is rather than nitpick. It's nothing more than a popcorn thriller.

When this movie starts it looks like a normal TV movie where something dramatic will happen. Where the characters will have to work together in order to overcome the issue at hand. While the cover suggest that the lead character is male (Desmond Harrington from "Dexter") this is not true. The lead is Julia Mond who plays a deserted soldier from whatever reason. And she is the one who organizes the diverse characters and make a stand against the Nomads (who apparently can't speak). Once the terror of the Nomads begins you have to prepare yourself for one unrealistic event after another. Otherwise you will have a very hard time in enjoying this movie. I mentioned that this started out as a normal TV movie. Nothing is further from the truth. This is one violent movie. It's bloody and gory. And because you don't expect these normal characters to commit these actions it can be shocking (Compared to Mad Max 2 Exit Speed is much more cruel and that is saying something). Overall this movie is pretty decent. I only wished that Fred Ward had a much bigger role then he got. Also I would have liked to see a more realistic approach in the Siege the bus passengers are put in.

All along, I felt like I was watching a classic B-lister from a previous decade. A good one, entertaining, with atmosphere and character. Well written (which is rare enough nowadays), well acted... The pleasure taken translates into my note, a solid 7/10.

Then I watched that extra on the DVD, the making of, and I couldn't believe how tiny the budget actually was. Plus, they were cursed with bad weather all along their three days filming, forcing them to be even more clever to hide any signs of rain on the film. Well, if true, and I have no reason to disbelieve, then all I can say is bravo! If I was to rate according to budget, this one would deserve a 10.

Let me start off by saying that it blew away all my expectations. The trailer looked good so I picked it up expecting yet another low budget, straight-to-DVD action flick with small appearances by a couple of semi-recognizable stars (Fred Ward, Tremors; Lea Thompson, Back to the Future). Big mistake; this movie was so much more.

This was not your standard action movie. The characters start out as one dimensional cardboard cut-outs that all find themselves on the same bus to El Paso (ex-GI chick with mysterious past, angry coach, horny teen, artsy chick, foreign guy, worried mom... you get the idea). But when the action picks up and situations start to arise, each character shows a second or third dimension. Seriously, even people who die early on become more than just cardboard cut-outs. Props to the screenwriter and director for creating such great characters.

Another great thing about this movie is its strong female characters. There are no damsels in distress who need to be saved here. Every woman, in her own way, is an absolute bad*ss. I'll even go as far as to say that there is a character in this movie who ranks among Ripley and Sarah Connor in the most bad*ss woman in cinema category.

If I have to nag about something, though, it's the pacing. There are a couple of long stretches in this movie where little to no action happens, but I guess that's where character development fills in nicely.

I'll end by saying I recommend this movie to anyone who loves a good action and that this movie deserves a much higher rating than its current 5.0/10.